This is a Call to Action for a Non-Hierarchical Occupation of Monsanto Everywhere

Whether you like it or not, chances are Monsanto contaminated the food you ate today with chemicals and unlabeled GMOs. Monsanto controls much of the world's food supply at the expense of food democracy worldwide. This site is dedicated to empowering citizens of the world to take action against Monsanto & it's enablers like the FDA, USDA, EPA, GMA, BIO, and the processed food companies that use Monsanto's products.

Thousands Gather In Washington, D.C. To Rally Against ‘Dark Act’

WASHINGTON, DC — On October 16 and 17, 2015, the Food Justice Coalition will take to the streets of Washington, D.C. to raise awareness and lobby for the labeling of GMO foods.

The two-day event, in which hundreds of thousands of demonstrators are expected to turn out, aims to lobby Senators for the Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act as well as occupy Monsanto, the EPA, the GMA, and the TPP!

On Saturday, October 17th, the Food Justice Rally will begin at noon sharp on the West Lawn of the Capitol building. Scheduled to speak about the dangers of GMOs and the need for GMO labeling include Dr. Edward Group, Steven Druker, Anthony Gucciardi, Ronnie Cummins, Adam Eidinger, Kelly L. Derricks, and Liz Reitzig with other special guests. There will be a large unity march through the streets of D.C. following the rally.

As the most powerful biotech corporation today, Monsanto has drawn criticism for its control of the global food chain and advancement of genetically modified organisms.

GMO crops and ingredients have been consumed in the US for over twenty years and most of the corn, soybeans, and canola produced in the US are genetically engineered. Polls conducted by the New York Times, Washington Post, and Consumer Reports show over 90% of Americans support national GMO labeling – an initiative that has been repeatedly defeated at the state level as a result of heavy spending by Monsanto-backed lobbying groups.

According to the Center for Food Safety, dozens of US states have considered GMO labeling initiatives and a few have passed laws mandating GMO transparency. Vermont’s governor signed the nation’s first GMO-labeling requirement into law in 2014, to take effect in 2016, but a coalition of biotech firms filed a lawsuit in opposition. Other states have passed limited labeling laws with strings attached.

“In 2013, the first March Against Monsanto garnered more than 2 million protesters in over 400 cities across the world. Since then, the March Against Monsanto has become the most powerful grassroots initiative we have in the fight to reclaim our food supply from the GMO seed juggernaut known as the Monsanto Company,” said Anthony Gucciardi, March Against Monsanto speaker.

MARCH AGAINST MONSANTOWORLDWIDE PROTESTS ON MAY 23

Marchers in over 400 Cities Demand Labeling of Genetically Engineered Foods and the Reduction of Carcinogenic Chemicals Used in Industrial Agriculture

WASHINGTON, DC – On May 23, 2015, for the third year in a row, hundreds of thousands of concerned individuals will gather across 38 countries and 428 cities to join in peaceful protest against the Monsanto Company as a part of the March Against Monsanto grassroots campaign. This movement seeks to raise awareness to the dangers surrounding Monsanto’s genetically modified seeds and cancer-linked herbicide Roundup.

The campaign comes as the demand for GMO labeling and non-GMO food alternatives continues its exponential climb, with states like Vermont enacting mandatory GM labeling legislation that will require food corporations to let consumers know if their products contain GM ingredients.

In polls conducted by the New York Times, Washington Post, Consumer Reports, and many others, over 90% of respondents were in support of national GMO labeling – an initiative that has been defeated time and time again at the state level thanks to heavy spending by Monsanto-backed lobbying groups.

Highlighting the concern over Monsanto’s products is the latest report from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, which listed the primary chemical in Monsanto’s best-selling herbicide Roundup, glyphosate, as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” This finding has drawn many researchers and health experts to stand behind the goals of March Against Monsanto.

“We are marching because we’re tired of being ignored by the White House, FDA, and the USDA,“ says Gene Etic, an organizer with Occupy Monsanto. The White House has failed to respond to multiple GMO labeling petitions and has gone so far as appointing former Monsanto employees to positions of power in the FDA. Officially, the FDA does not believe there is any material difference between patented GMO plants and their non-GMO counterparts, but marchers believe that patented plants deserve a label in order to fully inform consumers of the novel technology.

“We already label foods that are irradiated, a process that everyone agrees is safe, so if GMO ingredients are also safe, why not label them as well?” asks Natalie Freeds, an organizer with DC March Against Monsanto. “I want this basic information so I can choose which foods to feed my children.” In fact, over 64 countries around the world either ban GE foods or require them to be properly labeled, including Russia, China, and the European Union.

Marchers will also be taking a stand against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade agreement that will prevent GMO labeling in America and force Monsanto’s patented products on to countries that wish to be GMO-free.

There are two GMO labeling federal bills currently in Congress called the “Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act,” which would require the mandatory labeling of GMOs sold in America. The House version, H.R. 913, is sponsored by Rep. Defazio (D-OR), and the Senate version, S.511, is sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA).

Aside from marching against Monsanto and the TPP, organizers are marching against Rep. Pompeo’s H.R. 1599, colloquially known as the D.A.R.K. Act (Denying Americans’ Right to Know). This legislation promoted by Monsanto and other industrial agricultural proponents would pre-empt state labeling laws and would undo the GMO labeling laws that have been passed in Connecticut, Maine and Vermont.

Americans Demand GMO Labeling

In 2011 and 2012 over a million Americans signed the “Just Label It” FDA petition for GMO labeling, but the FDA has responded with silence. “The Food and Drug Administration is not listening to the overwhelming majority of Americans who want meaningful food labels,” says Jessica Payne, founder of Loudoun Against GMOs. “We have signed numerous petitions but we’ve received no response. We only want the same food labels citizens of over 64 countries enjoy.”

The deafening silence on GMO labeling reaches to President Obama’s White House as well. Activists have chosen to gather outside the White House because in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 President Obama’s White House failed to respond to three “We The People” online petitions on the White House website that have reached the required signature threshold for a response.

On September 23, 2011, on the second day after the “We The People” online petition website was launched, the first GMO labeling petition was created. This petition is the oldest unanswered petition on the “We The People” website. It has received over 66,000 signatures and has not received a response, while a petition on raw milk, which was also created on the very same day, was responded to after only 6,000 signatures. In April of 2012 another GMO labeling petition was created and 37 months & over 115,000 signatures later, there is still no response from the White House. Most recently, in October, 2014, another petition concerning the EPA’s approval of GE crops resistant to the highly toxic chemical 2,4-D reached the required threshold of over 100,000 signatures but has gone unanswered. In the meantime, the White House has answered three petitions on cannabis legalization and responded to insignificant petitions on issues like building the Death Star and the White House beer recipe. “What is the point of petitioning our government when our petitions fall upon deaf ears?” asks Gene Etic. “We are taking to the streets because our concerns can’t be ignored any longer.”

The battle for the right to know if your food contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could come to a screeching halt with the signing of one bill in Congress.

We need to stop that bill in its tracks.

H.R. 4432—the DARK (Deny Americans the Right to Know) ACT—was introduced by Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) at the bidding of Monsanto, Big Food and the Koch Brothers. If passed, H.R. 4432 will strip your state of the right to pass a GMO labeling law.

The DARK ACT will have its first hearing on Capitol Hill, on December 10. If we don’t turn out in numbers to protest this bill, our voice could be silenced.

The Organic Consumers Association, with help from Friends of the Earth, Credo, Cornucopia Institute, Maine Sierra Club, Weston Price Foundation, Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association, Green America, Mercola.com and other groups, is organizing busloads of people to attend the hearing, followed by a rally and an organic lunch. But if we want to have an impact, if we want to attract the attention of Congress and the media, we need a minimum of 1000 people to be there.

Here’s how you can help.

Organize a bus from your area. OCA will help pay for a bus from your state to Washington D.C., if you can fill the bus. Call us at 218-226-4164 or email campaigns@organicconsumers.org if you want to organize a bus.

Get on one of the buses that have already been organized. We have bus captains trying to fill buses in in Pennsylvania (one in Lancaster, one in Philadelphia), Boston, Central New Jersey, Detroit, Chicago, Indiana, West Virginia, New York City, Maine, Florida, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. If you live in one of those areas, please use the links below to find bus schedules and reserve seats.

Here’s what will happen on December 10.

8 a.m. – 10 a.m. The hearing on Pompeo’s DARK ACT is scheduled to take place at 10:15 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building, 45 Independence Ave SW. We will gather there, with signs and banners, beginning around 8 a.m. As many people as can possibly fit into the hearing will attend.

10:15 a.m. When the hearing begins, everyone who didn’t get into the Rayburn Building will move to our permitted rally spot on the Capitol grounds, at the corner of Independence and 1st St. SE. There we will have a number of speakers who will address the crowd and the media.

11 a.m. – 2 p.m. After we wrap up the rally and speakers, we’ll move to the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, 201 4th St. SE (4th and Independence Ave, SE).

If you can attend, please read:

Bring a black and red blindfold, to symbolize being kept in the dark. Red and black will tie in with our Stop Monsanto’s Attack on Democracy/Stop Sign image.

Please make a hand-made sign that says: [NAME OF YOUR STATE] Against Monsanto’s Attack on Democracy! We want to show Congress and the media that people have come from all around the country to protest this bill.

Help flood the phone lines on Capitol Hill on December 10. We’re asking everyone who can’t be there in person to call their Congress members on December 10, beginning at 9 a.m. When you are connected with a staff person, you can say: “Hello, my name is [FIRST NAME, LAST NAME] and I live in [CITY, STATE]. I couldn’t attend today’s protest against H.R. 4432, a bill that would preempt states’ rights to label GMOs, but I am calling to ask [NAME OF CONGRESS PERSON] to reject H.R. 4432 and to support states’ rights to pass mandatory GMO labeling laws. Thank you.”

Make a donation to help offset the cost of buses, speakers, the press conference and organic lunch.

Additional buses may yet be organized, so please check back. If you want to organize a bus, please email campaigns@organicconsumers.org, or call OCA at 218-226-4164.

This could be the most important action you’ve taken yet to protect your right to know about GMOs. Come to Washington D.C. on December 10. Meet other activists! Hear some great speakers! And help us send a clear message to Congress that states should have the right to pass GMO labeling laws!

After a banner year of bringing attention to big corporations’ role in climate disruption, Reverend Billy will conclude 2014 by confronting the company that is responsible for Agent Orange, PCBs, GMOs, Bovine Growth Hormone, Glyphosate and more.

Known by millions as the most environmentally destructive corporation on the planet, Monsanto, for nearly two decades, has been controlling political campaigns and affecting the regulatory process of agricultural systems all over the world. In the U.S. alone, more than 90 percent of soybeans and 80 percent of corn are grown with seeds containing Monsanto-patented genetics.

“Monsanto must be stopped,” said award-winning Reverend Billy, who has been jailed more than 50 times protesting social and environmental injustices. “Monsanto is the devil and what better day than Thanksgiving to remind the world that eating local, organic food is one way to stop this profit-mongering, biodiversity-destroying monopoly.”

Industrial agriculture and the entire globalized food system, which is becoming more large-scale and centralized every day, destroys biodiversity, soils and local food systems, and is responsible for accelerating climate change by contributing more than 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir will premier their new show, Monsanto Is the Devil, with the Not Buying It Band on Sunday, Nov. 23 at Joe’s Pub at The Public in New York City. Then the troupe will travel by bus to St. Louis, meet at a local park on Nov. 27 and march one mile to Monsanto’s world headquarters to have a festive organic Thanksgiving day meal where they will perform songs from their new show. The choir will be dressed in stylish Pilgrim and honey bee costumes.

“Despite its various marketing incarnations over the years, Monsanto is a chemical company that got its start selling saccharin to Coca-Cola, then Agent Orange to the U.S. military, and, in recent years, seeds genetically engineered to contain and withstand massive amounts of Monsanto herbicides and pesticides,” said Ronnie Cummins, executive director of Organic Consumers Association. “Monsanto has become synonymous with the corporatization and industrialization of our food supply.”

In addition to the Thanksgiving day meal, an online campaign has been launched encouraging people to take a pledge to cook an organic and local meal on Thanksgiving.

Monsanto’s world headquarters is located at 800 North Lindbergh Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri 63167.

Fast forward a year and a half, the city of Oxnard, California is figuratively throwing the book at these intrepid activists and charging them with over $8,300 in restitution & fines! This means they are being forced to pay Monsanto & the city of Oxnard or they’ll be arrested & forced to go jail! We can’t let this happen!